Cat and Mouse
by Cage The Elephant In The Room
Summary: Constant pursuit. Near capture. Repetitive evasion. The game was starting to get old. Arthur/Ariadne.


**So, I wrote my first Inception fic yesterday (and, no, Inception does not belong to me, but Nolan). I was not expecting much of a response, but I was extremely surprised to see that the fandom is already attracting a lot of buzz. It's incredibly exciting. So! I decided to try my hand at a different approach than the first fic I put up. This is an Arthur/Ariadne fic and I hope, since you clicked on this, that you enjoy it. Thank you for clicking/reading!**

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**Cat and Mouse**

Constant pursuit. Near capture. Repetitive evasion. The game was starting to get old. Or was it even a game to begin with? Was it simply an avoidance of pure emotion on both of their parts? Perhaps. Neither was quite sure how it had begun. Certainly, neither one of them had intended for it. And most of the time, neither could figure out who who was playing which role. Where the roles ended and began, neither knew at all.

Surely, you have to wonder, they must have known the circles they were running in. The holes they were digging themselves into. Together they were a swinging pendulum: swaying back and forth, always constant, but never so. Surely, they _must _have known.

And yet. They were much too similar to know. They were both in awe of what they could do in their dreams, _to _their dreams - so contorted and warped that, reality seemed less like a wake up call and more like a distant, inexplicable world of pain, despair, and injustice. Dreams were better, because they _felt _real. And if the emotional attachment was on the same playing field, what was so special about reality anyway? She and Arthur, they shared that same wonderment, that same aggressive drive.

But they were also much too different to even begin to realize that they were destructively chasing their tails. No one was winning; rather, they were both playing to lose.

Underneath his suave, charming exterior, he was calculating the extent of their relationship. How far could he push, before she would run away? How far could he step past the bounds he'd insisted upon himself? The simplest question of all: how far?

And Ariadne. She was charmed. She was captivated by his methodical, if not obsessive, professionalism. But she wasn't asking the same questions as him. It wasn't about how far or how much. It was simply, how long? How long could she pretend that they weren't already over the lines, past the damned bounds. They were already far past any semblance of normal. They couldn't continue on for much longer. She couldn't help but question the extent.

Sharing dreams, they both knew, was a risky business. Risky for them and anyone else they brought with them. Reality had already folded in on them, and dreams were their escape. A place where what they were feeling was no longer hidden, but subtly exposed. It was about acknowledgment.

Neither did.

They were playing a game of Cat-and-Mouse. Sharing the roles and dangerously (barely) escaping each round. Endurance was a necessity, but both were dwindling. They could _not _keep going for much longer.

She knew this at the very moment he realized this. In the moment when he turned to her and said the five words that changed it all.

_Quick, give me a kiss_.

She was only briefly startled before she leaned into him, and him to her. It was over so quickly that neither one was sure if it had happened. The _reality _of it all was that it hadn't. And yet it had.

"Well, it was worth a shot," he said to her.

Projections continued to stare. She told him this, dazed. Words were ringing in her head, repetitively. Reverberating. _Give me a kiss...it was worth a shot..._

She caught his eye and suddenly it was him who realized that the game hadn't ended with his bold move.

The game had only just begun.

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**I don't know what it is, but I have to make every first chapter work as a stand-alone just in case I'm unable to continue. Starting isn't a problem. Continuing...that's a **_**big **_**problem. If you like, cool. If you don't, also cool. Thanks for reading. Reviews are appreciated. **


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